I kinda wish I had more experience with Persona 2. I should play the copies I've got on my Vita someday, frankly. The story surrounding the game's localization is interesting enough to earn it a spot in the tournament, and it seems like a really neat game overall. It's mostly getting my vote by default here, along with Armored Core for being an okay enough mech game that had some novelty at the time.

I got reasonably far into Persona 2 on the PS1, and later on the PSP, and I just could not get into it. It's just a lot of wandering and talking and grinding, without the benefit of moving on to more interesting and exotic locations.

It probably deserves my vote waaay more than Legend of Legaia, buuut I can't redo it so ┐('~`; )┌ w/e

Some of these games (looking at you, RE2) belong in the winners for sure, especially when compared to some obviously worse versions (RE1) that are in the winners right now.

(I consider the REmake to be the best of the pre-4 REs, but the original RE is pretty much just straight inferior to 2.)

I doubt any of the 32 games here will end up going toe to toe with the winners bracket champ in the grand finals, though. It'll most likely be a game that gets eliminated from the winners sometime in the future.

Bof4 also deserves to be in the winners bracket. That game is seriously underappreciated. (Not as underappreciated as Dragon Quarter, of course.)

I've never played the original Silent Hill, so can't speak to it directly, but it probably shouldn't be here after only one round either.

For me, the more interesting bracket is probably the losers, because they automatically get underdog status. As the weaker winners bracket games filter in, it will become harder and harder for games like Bof4 and Colony Wars to survive. Despite heavily doubting RE2 (the game I consider strongest in losers right now) will make it to the Grand Finals, I hope it goes to top 4 losers.

Armored Core was super fun, and had great customizability for the day. Probably kept From Software in business long enough to make the Souls games.

I remember having an intense midair multiplayer duel with a friend in Armored Core; by the end, I was at 3% health, he was at 5% health, and we were both out of ammo. After dancing around for another few minutes, we just go "let's end this" and charge each other head on with laserblades. I intentionally swing early, causing his swing to miss the mark and locking his controls for a second, which let my second laserblade swing connect. So good.

Not a great round for me. Lunar 2, as I said before, is just not as memorable or fun as the first game. It's fine. Never played Brave Fencer despite it sitting right over there. I could go pick it up and play it right now! .. but I won't. Metal Slug X is a good Metal Slug game, but I'll give the vote to BoF4 just based on other people's fondness for it. That and Lunar.

Silent Hill deserves another shot. It's overshadowed by its sequel to be sure, but the first game was a pretty good foundation to work off of. I'l also toss one to Threads of Fate because it always seemed neat enough.